


Hey There to My Future Self

by threewalls



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives, Cake, Character Death Fix, Community: hc_bingo, Depression, F/F, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Meta, Metaphysics, Recovery, Shoujo-ai, Spoilers, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-20
Updated: 2011-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-21 14:38:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/226309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/threewalls/pseuds/threewalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cake makes everything better. So does having friends.</p><p>(Everyone lives. Spoilers for whole series.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hey There to My Future Self

**Author's Note:**

> Written for hc_bingo 2011: "upset at a higher being."

Sayaka struggles in Kyouko's arms. The train has pulled away from the station. Sayaka hasn't stopped yelling. This time, Kyouko found Sayaka on the train.

"They were-- they were idiots! They were talking trash about their girlfriends-- like what they wanted didn't matter-- like they didn't matter."

As long as Sayaka's angry, that's better. This is the girl Kyouko has come to know, not the listless stranger she saved from crazy girl Akemi. There's more strength in her now, in the arms beating Kyouko's chest.

"This is what I'm supposed to fight for? They're what I'm supposed to die for? Just dump a girl as soon as she does something they don't like? Can always find another girl--"

Kyouko can feel the dampness soaking through her hoodie. Tears worry her. If Sayaka tries to transform, with her gem so clouded, Kyouko's afraid what will happen. She doesn't know what to do except hold on.

"Boys don't know what devotion is! They don't see-- don't see-- he never saw..."

But, this time, holding on will be just what Kyouko needs to do.

♥♥♥

And when they wake, it will be morning, sunshine streaming onto the station platform. Commuters will shuffle around them, thick for the morning rush-hour but somehow all avoiding this particular bench. Kyouko and Sayaka's hands will be linked, fingers entwined, and between their cupped palms, their soul gems will _glow_ : radiant ruby and shining sapphire.

"How? I--" Sayaka will put her hands to her head, her soul gem transmuting to ring in a flash. "The darkness, it-- it came out on its own?"

"It... does that." Kyouko will frown, as if there's something she can't quite remember. "Doesn't it?"

But she will shake it off, will pick up the coal chip sitting beside her soul, in the palm of her hand, and will throw the dusty remnant over her left shoulder.

"Can't eat it," Kyouko will say, and then she will remember a time she tried, and a time she told Sayaka the story of the time she tried, the way the other girl had laughed-- except that by then Sayaka will have stood beside the train station bench and she will be holding Kyouko's hand once more, holding tight.

"Thank you," Sayaka will say, bowing from the waist, and if she's crying, quick, quiet trails down her cheeks, they will be clear, happy tears. "Thank you, Kyouko-chan, for listening, last night."

♥♥♥

In April, when the cherry blossoms drift in like pink snow, Mami-sempai will graduate from their school and enrol in high school. It's only next door, but achievements should be celebrated, so they will all go to Mami and Kyouko's flat and eat cake. They will kneel around Mami's triangular dining table, three sides, three girls, just so.

Kyouko started living there a few months back, after she stopped fighting with Sayaka (she's learnt to wash a mean dish, and insists that Mami's decorating stops at the entrance to Kyouko's room).

Sayaka has her side of the table, too, because she comes by to work on her homework somewhere quieter than home-- which isn't always an excuse or euphemism for demon-hunting-- and there's cake.

It's still only Mami's name on the door plate, but she can come home to a flat warmer for the company than the drapes and cushions and can cook all the lovely things she's ever wanted to.

That day's cake will be a layered confection of thick sweet cream, delicate slivers of sponge and chunks of apricots as golden as Mami-sempai's hair.

"This is delicious," Sayaka will say, and Kyouko will mumble something similar around a bite from her second piece.

Mami will laugh, and say something about appetite being the best compliment for a chef, how much she loves cooking for friends, sunny serene smile. She will offer Kyouko another piece just as Sayaka rolls her eyes and holds up her next bite of cake, the tines of her fork pointing at Kyouko's mouth.

Sayaka's cheeks will pink, and Kyouko will get a third slice and two more bites from Sayaka's plate, and on the sun-drenched window-ledge of Mami's kitchen, Mami's soul gem will glow topaz bright, shedding dark grains of despair with every ring of girlish laughter from the dining table.

And Homura-chan will be there, standing outside the window, balanced with one hand gripping the window ledge, to lever open the window and pick up those little coal nuggets for the messenger of magic curled around her neck.

Things can be different. Things will be different.

♥♥♥

Homura graduates high school on another sakura-breezy April day. She stands on the school lawns, alone but within earshot of the other girls. Mami with her strappy heels and digital camera, Sayaka carefully posed with two fingers raised in victory, and Kyouko rushing in at the last moment, tackling Sayaka around the waist. Homura smiles to see them, even as she turns away.

She holds her diploma curled in one hand, the other raised to brush her wind-blown hair from her face. Her ribbon slips, sliding through dark silk and then it's gone, caught in the wind--

\-- and then in Madoka's hand.

"Er. Congratulations! Do you remem--?"

"Madoka!!!"

The answer comes with Homura flung down on her knees, arms around Madoka. Her shoulders shake under Madoka's hands.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Homura says, breath hitching on her tears. "You-- you were--nobody else could remember you!"

"Ah, well, I-- my wish was that Puellae Magi could save each other from despair. That they would never have to fight each other. That they always have a friend... and sometimes, because they would have had no one, I had to be there."

Homura looks at her, eyes slowly blinking.

"But-- I have--" Homura ducks her head back into Madoka's stomach, clutching all the tighter. "I can despair! I can--!!"

"No, no, Homura-chan, I just-- I wanted to see you."

In her head, the reason sounded small to Madoka, but not anymore, not when Homura looks at her like that.

"But-but--" Homura sniffs. "Why did you wait?"

"I don't travel through time like Homura-chan did." Madoka holds a hand down to help Homura up. "I...mm, I don't really understand it myself. I wished and I was suddenly 14 and 47 and 78, all at once, and I--"

As Homura stands, Madoka's other hand slips from Homura's shoulders to Homura's waist. It fits there. They're both taller than when they first met, but Madoka is discovering that Homura will always be taller than her, long, long legs in dark stockings.

"--I wanted to wait for Homura-chan to catch up."

Homura looks at Madoka, eyes wide, a moment, two, and then she's blushing a desperate and pretty pink-- and lunging forward.

It is the first kiss Madoka remembers, even if she can now remember remembering it, this moment, Homura's lips touching quick and off-center, the faint taste of salt, the stiff silk of the ribbon tied at the small of Homura's back.

"Hey, Homura, when are you going to introduce us your _friend_ , huh?"

Homura jerks back, eyes narrowing in the cool glance she sends at their audience. Kyouko looks unaffected, all but leering at them over Sayaka's shoulder. Beside the pair, Mami waves. They don't remember her, but that's ok. Madoka likes making new friends.

Madoka doesn't need Homura to manifest her soul gem to know that it is a vivid, vibrant amethyst. She visits Puellae Magi in their moments of deepest despair, and for these girls, today is anything but that. That's why Madoka chose today: she has no idea what will happen next.


End file.
